Here’s my vote: President Moreno at a constitutional referendum in Quito, Ecuador, in February 2018

Gabriela Mena · Press South · Getty

Progressive Latin Americans were relieved when Lenín Moreno was elected president of Ecuador in May 2017. His victory over banker Guillermo Lasso seemed to halt the rightwing advance in the region following the election of Horacio Cartes in Paraguay in 2013 and Mauricio Macri in Argentina in 2015, and the nomination of Michel Temer in Brazil after the contested ousting of Dilma Rousseff in 2016.

Moreno had promised during his campaign to pursue the Citizens’ Revolution (CR) initiated by Rafael Correa (president 2007-17) with its mix of development, wealth redistribution and reconstruction of the state. Moreno had also vowed to change Correa’s aggressive, vertical style of leadership, promising national dialogue to end the polarisation that had exhausted so many people. The challenge to Correa’s model increased with the economic crisis of 2015-16 and the corruption scandals involving key Correa government figures.

Once the elections were over, Ecuadorians discovered that the true purpose of Moreno’s ‘national dialogue’ was to bring about a rapprochement between the executive and the anti-Correa elite. As soon as he came to power, Moreno behaved as though his legitimacy depended on his ability to put this policy into effect. The platform on which he had been elected, and which might have obstructed such a dialogue, vanished.

Moreno’s first measures, including restoring market forces and aligning foreign policy with the US, astounded Ecuador’s left and pleased the right. His main adversary was Correa, though he had been Correa’s vice-president in 2007-13 and had pledged to pursue his policies. The CR, the progressive political movement that had transformed the country, had brought to power a man determined to eradicate that movement.

This February, Moreno’s government organised a referendum, which was presented to the public as vital to ‘overcome corruption’. Its real goal was to weaken Correa, still very popular with some people. The (...)